How to Choose Colors for Living Room Decor
The color choices you make in a living room décor will depend on many variables, including, of course, your own preference. While no color choice can be completely wrong for a living room, there are strategic steps that a professional designer takes in determining the best color for a living room. You can use these professional steps yourself in choosing new colors for your living room design. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Choose paint samples of colors you like. Go to the paint or home improvement store and gather up many paint sample color chips. If a color attracts your eye, pick it up and tuck it into your pocket. Browse with abandon: Don't limit yourself to any potential color choice. Choose color chips from various paint manufacturer displays.
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Measure the size of your living room to determine if it is a big, average or small room. Rooms that exceed dimensions of 18 feet in any direction are usually considered to be big. Living rooms 14 to 16 feet in any direction are considered average. Rooms that are smaller than 12 feet in any direction are considered small for a living room.
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Sort through your paint chips. Divide them into two piles---light colors and dark colors. Cast out colors from your list of potential candidates in this first round by following this simple visual color volume rule: light-colored paint is good for small rooms, dark-colored paint is good for big rooms. You will use these colors later, but take them out of the running for now. Pick the color category best for your size room. Move all these color chips up to the second round of your decision-making process.
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Identify the number of windows in the room and the directions they face. Windows on the eastern or northern sides of the home are considered cool windows since the sun won't be coming through these windows during the high point of the day. Windows on the southern or western sides of the house are warm windows that catch the most sun during the day. Decide if your living room is a cool room or a warm room.
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Sort through your remaining color chips, this time using a simple color temperature rule: warm colors in cool, cool colors in warm. Choose colors in the warm range (reds, some purples, yellows, oranges) for cool rooms. Choose colors in the cool range (blues, some purples, greens) for warm rooms. Cast out the color chips that are wrong for the temperature of the room.
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Compare your remaining color chip candidates to other decorating factors, like the color of floor treatments or colors of large furniture items that you don't intend to replace. Determine how these final color candidates might work with (or against) these other elements. Cast out those colors that don't go with your floors or largest furnishings, narrowing your choices down to just two candidates.
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Tape the two remaining colors candidates to separate walls and look at them from a distance. Make a decision between the two.
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Look back through all your color chips, even those you rejected earlier. If there is one color in this group that still speaks to you very loudly, give it one last chance regardless of any rules. Tape it to the wall and let it compete against the other color choice for your approval.
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Choose the one color that you like the best---regardless of any rules. Don't saddle yourself with a color you don't like, just because it follows rules. Pick the color you like in the end---at least you will be aware of how it could adversely affect your living room's visual size or temperature and won't be unpleasantly surprised after the painting is complete.
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Choose other colors now that complement the color you chose. Choose related accent colors that are next to this color on the color wheel (such as oranges with a red, or blue-greens with a blue). Use accent colors in fabrics and artwork. Or, choose a color that is opposite this color on the color wheel (such as blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green). You can find a good online color wheel in the resources section. Add a good dose of a neutral color to the mix, such as white, gray, brown or black. Use neutral colors in wood work, furniture finishes, or in some fabric treatments.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're still not sure, after all this testing, purchase small sample amounts of the actual paints in the final two colors. Test the paint on the wall, painting a patch at least the size of a sheet of notebook paper. Paint two coats of the color on this test patch. Sometimes the larger test patch makes all the difference in your decision.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit color chips image by charles taylor from Fotolia.com
